Mobile phoneMobile phones from various yearsA mobile phone or cell phone is an electronic telecommunications device with the same basic capability as a conventional fixed-line telephone, but which is also entirely portable and is not required to be connected with a wire to the telephone network. Most current mobile phones connect instead to the network using a wireless radio wave transmission technology. The mobile phone communicates via a cellular network of base stations, or cell sites, which are in turn linked to the conventional telephone network. In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, a mobile phone can support many additional services such as SMS for text messaging, packet switching for access to the Internet, and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video. Some of the world's largest mobile phone manufacturers include Alcatel, Audiovox, Fujitsu, Kyocera (formerly the handset division of Qualcomm), LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Philips, Sagem, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens, SK Teletech, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba. There are also specialist communication systems related to, but distinct from mobile phones, such as satellite phones and Professional Mobile Radio. Mobile phones are also distinct from cordless telephones, which generally operate only within a limited range of a specific base station. Worldwide deploymentMock-up of the "portable phone of the future", from a mid-60s Bell System advertisement, shows a device not too different from today's mobile telephones.Radio phones have a long and varied history that stretches back to the 1950s, with hand-held cellular radio devices being available since 1983. Due to their low establishment costs and rapid deployment, mobile phone networks have since spread rapidly throughout the world, outstripping the growth of fixed telephony. In most of Europe, wealthier parts of Asia and Latin America, Australia, Canada and the United States, mobile phones are now widely used, with the majority of the adult, teenage, and even child population owning one. At present India and China have the largest growth rates of cellular subscribers in the world. The availability of Prepaid or pay as you go services, where the subscriber does not have to commit to a long term contract, has helped fuel this growth. The mobile phone has become ubiquitous because of the interoperability of mobile phones across different networks and countries. This is due to the equipment manufacturers working to meet one of a few standards, particularly the GSM standard which was designed for Europe-wide interoperability. All European nations and some Asian nations legislated it as their sole standard. In other countries, such as the United States, Japan, and South Korea, legislation does not require any particular standard, and GSM coexists with other standards, such as CDMA. Mobile phone cultureSMS message on a Sony Ericsson handsetIn less than twenty years, mobile phones have gone from being rare and expensive pieces of equipment used by businesses to a pervasive low-cost personal item. In many countries, mobile phones now outnumber land-line telephones, with most adults and many children now owning mobile phones. It is not uncommon for young adults to simply own a mobile phone instead of a land-line for their residence. In some developing countries, where there is little existing fixed-line infrastructure, the mobile phone has become widespread. With high levels of mobile telephone penetration, a mobile culture has evolved, where the phone becomes a key social tool, and people rely on their mobile phone addressbook to keep in touch with their friends. Many people keep in touch using SMS, and a whole culture of "texting" has developed from this. The commercial market in SMS's is growing. Many phones even offer Instant Messenger services to increase the simplicity and ease of texting on phones. Cellular phones in Japan, offering Internet capabilities such as NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, offer text messaging via standard e-mail. The mobile phone itself has also become a totemic and fashion object, with users decorating, customizing, and accessorizing their mobile phones to reflect their personality. This has emerged as its own industry. The sale of commercial ringtones exceeded $2.5 billion in 2004 [1]. The use of a mobile phone is prohibited in some rail carriagesMobile phone etiquette has become an important issue with mobiles ringing at funerals, weddings, movies, and plays. Users often speak at increased volume, with little regard for other people nearby. It has become common practice for places like bookshops, libraries, movie theatres, and houses of worship to post signs prohibiting the use of mobile phones, sometimes even installing jamming equipment to prevent them. Many rail companies, particularly those providing long distance services, offer a "quiet car" where phone use is prohibited, much like the designated non-smoking cars in the past. Mobile phone use on aircraft is also prohibited, but due to concerns of possible interference with aircraft radio communications. Cameraphones and videophones that can capture video and take photographs are increasingly being used to cover breaking news. Stories like the London Bombings, the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina have been reported on by cameraphone users on news sites like NowPublic and photosharing sites like Flickr. In Japan, cellular phone companies provide immediate notification of earthquakes and other natural disasters to their customers free of charge. In the event of an emergency, disaster response crews can locate trapped or injured people using the signals from their mobile phones; an interactive menu accessible through the phone's Internet browser notifies the company if the user is safe or in distress. Mobile phone featuresMobile phones often have features beyond sending text messages and make voice calls—including Internet browsing, music (MP3) playback, personal organizers, e-mail, built-in cameras and camcorders, ringtones, games, radio, Push To Talk (PTT), infrared and bluetooth connectivity, call registers, and ability to watch streaming video or download video for later viewing. TechnologyMobile phones and the network they operate under vary significantly from provider to provider, and even from nation to nation. However, all of them communicate through electromagnetic radio waves with a cell site/base station, the antennas of which are usually mounted on a tower, pole, or building. The phones have a low-power transceiver that transmits voice and data to the nearest cell sites, usually .5 to 10 miles away. When the cellular phone or data device is turned on, it registers with the mobile telephone exchange ("switch") with its unique identifiers, and will then be alerted by the mobile switch when there is an incoming telephone call. The handset constantly listens for the strongest signal being received from the surrounding base stations. As the user moves around the network, the mobile device will "hand off" to new cell sites. Cell sites have relatively low-power (often only one or two Watts) radio transmitters which broadcast their presence and relay communications between the mobile handsets and the switch. The switch in turn connects the call to another subscriber of the same wireless service provider or to the public telephone network, which includes the networks of other wireless carriers. The dialogue between the handset and the cell site is a stream of digitized audio (except for the first generation analog networks). The technology that achieves this depends on the system which the mobile phone operator has adopted. Some technologies include AMPS for analog, and TDMA, CDMA, GSM, GPRS, EV-DO, and UMTS for digital communications. Each network operator has a unique radio frequency band. ControversyHealth controversyAs with many new technologies, concerns have arisen about the effects on health from using a mobile telephone. There is a small amount of scientific evidence for an increase in certain types of rare tumors (cancer) in long-time, heavy users. More recently a pan-European study provided significant evidence of genetic damage under certain conditions. Some researchers also report the mobile phone industry has interfered with further research on health risks. So far, however, the World Health Organization Task Force on EMF effects on health has no definitive conclusion on the veracity of these allegations. (see also electromagnetic radiation hazard). It is generally thought, however, that RF is incapable of producing any more than heating effects, as it is considered non-ionizing radiation; in other words, it lacks the energy to disrupt molecular bonds such as occurs in genetic mutations. [citation needed] Driving controversyAnother controversial but more lethal health concern is the correlation with road traffic accidents. Several studies have shown that motorists have a much higher risk of collisions and losing control of the vehicle while talking on the mobile telephone simultaneously with driving, even when using "hands-free" systems. A study in The New England Journal of Medicine reports that drivers who used mobile phones while driving were four times more likely to crash than those who don't, a rate equal to that for drunken driving at the .01 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level. An experiment conducted by the American television show MythBusters concluded that use of mobile phones while driving poses the same risk as someone operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. Accidents involving a driver being distracted by talking on a mobile phone have begun to be prosecuted as negligence similar to driving while intoxicated. At least 25 countries restrict or prohibit cell and other wireless technology: Israel, Japan, Portugal and Singapore all prohibit mobile phone use while driving. Australia, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, the Philippines, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates prohibit the use of hand-held cell phones while driving. Drivers in the Czech Republic, France, and the Netherlands may use cell phones but can be fined if they are involved in crashes while using such a device. Restrictive legislation has been proposed in 40 states in the US, but only New York State has passed such a law. Security concernsEarly mobile phones did not have much security designed in. Some problems with these models were "cloning", a variant of identity theft, and "scanning" whereby third parties in the local area could intercept and eaves drop in on calls. Analogue phones could also be listened to on some radio scanners. Although more recent digital systems (such as GSM) have attempted to address these fundamental issues, security problems continue to persist. Vulnerabilities (such as SMS spoofing) have been found in many current protocols that continue to allow the possibility of eavesdropping or cloning. Future prospectsVideo phoneThere is a great deal of active research and development into mobile phone technology that is currently underway. Some of the improvements that are being worked on are:
TerminologyMobile phone terms
Related systems which are not cell phones
Terms in other countriesFurther information: Mobile phone terms across the world This page about Cell Phone includes information from a Wikipedia article. Additional articles about Cell Phone News stories about Cell Phone External links for Cell Phone Videos for Cell Phone Wikis about Cell Phone Discussion Groups about Cell Phone Blogs about Cell Phone Images of Cell Phone |
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Some of the improvements that are being worked on are:. In the third quarter of 2003 Sun discountinued their Cobalt line in favor of the AMD based Sun Fire line. There is a great deal of active research and development into mobile phone technology that is currently underway. Previously known as Cobalt Systems, this Internet appliance company was acquired by Sun in 2000. Vulnerabilities (such as SMS spoofing) have been found in many current protocols that continue to allow the possibility of eavesdropping or cloning. Cobalt was also the name of Sun Microsystems' mainly rack-mounted, Intel and Linux based, server appliance line. Although more recent digital systems (such as GSM) have attempted to address these fundamental issues, security problems continue to persist. This process is referred to as irradiation. Analogue phones could also be listened to on some radio scanners. Nevertheless, the gamma radiation emitted from cobalt-60 is used to kill bacteria on fruit and vegetables thus increasing their shelf life. Some problems with these models were "cloning", a variant of identity theft, and "scanning" whereby third parties in the local area could intercept and eaves drop in on calls. The risk in the absence of a nuclear war comes from improper handling (or theft) of medical radiotherapeutic units. Early mobile phones did not have much security designed in. Some nuclear weapon designs could intentionally increase the amount of Cobalt-60 dispersed as nuclear fallout – this is sometimes called a dirty bomb or cobalt bomb, once predicted by a leading scientist as being capable of wiping out all life on earth. Restrictive legislation has been proposed in 40 states in the US, but only New York State has passed such a law. Cobalt-60 is a risk factor in a nuclear confrontation because neutron emissions will convert iron into this isotope. Drivers in the Czech Republic, France, and the Netherlands may use cell phones but can be fined if they are involved in crashes while using such a device. Ingestion of 60Co will lead to incorporation of some cobalt into tissues, which is released very slowly. Australia, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, the Philippines, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates prohibit the use of hand-held cell phones while driving. Cobalt-60 is a powerful gamma ray emitter and exposure to 60Co is therefore a cancer risk. At least 25 countries restrict or prohibit cell and other wireless technology: Israel, Japan, Portugal and Singapore all prohibit mobile phone use while driving. Cobalt compounds should be handled with care due to cobalt's slight toxicity. Accidents involving a driver being distracted by talking on a mobile phone have begun to be prosecuted as negligence similar to driving while intoxicated. Powdered cobalt in metal form is a fire hazard. An experiment conducted by the American television show MythBusters concluded that use of mobile phones while driving poses the same risk as someone operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. The primary decay products before 59Co are element 26 (iron) isotopes and the primary products after are element 28 (nickel) isotopes. A study in The New England Journal of Medicine reports that drivers who used mobile phones while driving were four times more likely to crash than those who don't, a rate equal to that for drunken driving at the .01 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level. The primary decay mode before the most abundant stable isotope, 59Co, is electron capture and the primary mode after is beta decay. Several studies have shown that motorists have a much higher risk of collisions and losing control of the vehicle while talking on the mobile telephone simultaneously with driving, even when using "hands-free" systems. The isotopes of cobalt range in atomic weight from 50 amu (50Co) to 73 amu (73Co). Another controversial but more lethal health concern is the correlation with road traffic accidents. This element also has 4 meta states, all of which have half lives less than 15 minutes. [citation needed]. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lifes that are less than 18 hours and the majority of these have half lives that are less than 1 second. It is generally thought, however, that RF is incapable of producing any more than heating effects, as it is considered non-ionizing radiation; in other words, it lacks the energy to disrupt molecular bonds such as occurs in genetic mutations. 22 radioisotopes have been characterized with the most stable being 60Co with a half-life of 5.2714 years, 57-Co (57Co) with a half-life of 271.79 days, and 56-Co (56Co) with a half-life of 77.27 days, and 58-Co (58Co) with a half life of 70.86 days. (see also electromagnetic radiation hazard). Naturally occurring cobalt is composed of 1 stable isotope, 59-Co (59Co). So far, however, the World Health Organization Task Force on EMF effects on health has no definitive conclusion on the veracity of these allegations. Oxides are antiferromagnetic at low temperature CoO (Neel temperature: 291 K) and Co3O4 (Neel temperature: 40 K). Some researchers also report the mobile phone industry has interfered with further research on health risks. Due to the various oxidation states, there is an abundant number of compounds. More recently a pan-European study provided significant evidence of genetic damage under certain conditions. It is also produced in the town of Cobalt, Ontario as a byproduct of the silver mining. There is a small amount of scientific evidence for an increase in certain types of rare tumors (cancer) in long-time, heavy users. It is also found in Finland, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. As with many new technologies, concerns have arisen about the effects on health from using a mobile telephone. The world's major producers of cobalt are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mainland China, Zambia, Russia and Australia. Each network operator has a unique radio frequency band. The main ores of cobalt are cobaltite, erythrite, glaucodot, and skutterudite. Some technologies include AMPS for analog, and TDMA, CDMA, GSM, GPRS, EV-DO, and UMTS for digital communications. Cobalt is usually not mined alone, and tends to be produced as a by-product of nickel and copper mining activities. The technology that achieves this depends on the system which the mobile phone operator has adopted. Cobalt is not found as a free metal and is generally found in the form of ores. The dialogue between the handset and the cell site is a stream of digitized audio (except for the first generation analog networks). Cobalt is a central component of the vitamin cobalamin, or vitamin B-12. The switch in turn connects the call to another subscriber of the same wireless service provider or to the public telephone network, which includes the networks of other wireless carriers. Having 0.13 to 0.30 mg/kg of cobalt in soils markedly improves the health of grazing animals. Cell sites have relatively low-power (often only one or two Watts) radio transmitters which broadcast their presence and relay communications between the mobile handsets and the switch. Cobalt in small amounts is essential to many living organisms, including humans. As the user moves around the network, the mobile device will "hand off" to new cell sites. Some also think the name may derive from Greek kobalos, which means 'mine', and which may have common roots with kobold, goblin, and cobalt. The handset constantly listens for the strongest signal being received from the surrounding base stations. Other sources cite the origin as stemming from silver miners' belief that cobalt had been placed by kobolds who had stolen the silver. When the cellular phone or data device is turned on, it registers with the mobile telephone exchange ("switch") with its unique identifiers, and will then be alerted by the mobile switch when there is an incoming telephone call. The word cobalt comes from the German kobalt or kobold, meaning evil spirit, the metal being so called by miners, because it was poisonous and troublesome (it polluted and degraded the other mined elements, like nickel). The phones have a low-power transceiver that transmits voice and data to the nearest cell sites, usually .5 to 10 miles away. In 1938, John Livingood and Glenn Seaborg discovered cobalt-60. However, all of them communicate through electromagnetic radio waves with a cell site/base station, the antennas of which are usually mounted on a tower, pole, or building. During the 19th century, cobalt blue was produced at the Norwegian Blaafarveværket (70-80 % of world production), led by the Prussian industrialist Benjamin Wegner. Mobile phones and the network they operate under vary significantly from provider to provider, and even from nation to nation. He was able to show that cobalt was the source of the blue color in glasses, which previously had been attributed to the bismuth found with cobalt. Mobile phones often have features beyond sending text messages and make voice calls—including Internet browsing, music (MP3) playback, personal organizers, e-mail, built-in cameras and camcorders, ringtones, games, radio, Push To Talk (PTT), infrared and bluetooth connectivity, call registers, and ability to watch streaming video or download video for later viewing. The date of discovery varies depending on the source, but is between 1730 and 1737. In the event of an emergency, disaster response crews can locate trapped or injured people using the signals from their mobile phones; an interactive menu accessible through the phone's Internet browser notifies the company if the user is safe or in distress. George Brandt (1694-1768) is credited with the discovery of cobalt. In Japan, cellular phone companies provide immediate notification of earthquakes and other natural disasters to their customers free of charge. Cobalt was known in ancient times through its compounds, which would color glass a rich blue. Stories like the London Bombings, the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina have been reported on by cameraphone users on news sites like NowPublic and photosharing sites like Flickr. The second machine is out beside the walkway into the Centre. Cameraphones and videophones that can capture video and take photographs are increasingly being used to cover breaking news. In fact the first machine is on display in the Saskatoon Cancer Centre – look up when entering the lobby. Mobile phone use on aircraft is also prohibited, but due to concerns of possible interference with aircraft radio communications. The first 60Co therapy machine (the "cobalt bomb") was built and first used in Canada. Many rail companies, particularly those providing long distance services, offer a "quiet car" where phone use is prohibited, much like the designated non-smoking cars in the past. The 60Co source is useful for about 5 years but even after this point is still very radioactive, and so cobalt machines have fallen from favor in the Western world where linacs are common. It has become common practice for places like bookshops, libraries, movie theatres, and houses of worship to post signs prohibiting the use of mobile phones, sometimes even installing jamming equipment to prevent them. The metal has the unfortunate habit of producing a fine dust, causing problems with radiation protection. Users often speak at increased volume, with little regard for other people nearby. The 60Co source is about 2 cm in diameter and as a result produces a geometric penumbra, making the edge of the radiation field fuzzy. Mobile phone etiquette has become an important issue with mobiles ringing at funerals, weddings, movies, and plays. It produces two gamma rays with energies of 1.17 MeV and 1.33 MeV. The sale of commercial ringtones exceeded $2.5 billion in 2004 [1]. Cobalt-60 (Co-60 or 60Co) is a radioactive metal that is used in radiotherapy. This has emerged as its own industry. Co-60 is useful as a gamma ray source partially because it can be produced - in known quantity, and very large amounts - by simply exposing natural cobalt to neutrons in a reactor for a given time. The mobile phone itself has also become a totemic and fashion object, with users decorating, customizing, and accessorizing their mobile phones to reflect their personality. Common oxidation states of cobalt include +2, and +3, though +1 is also seen. Cellular phones in Japan, offering Internet capabilities such as NTT DoCoMo's i-mode, offer text messaging via standard e-mail. Metallic cobalt commonly presents a mixture of two crystallographic structures hcp and fcc with a transition temperature hcp→fcc of 722 K. Many phones even offer Instant Messenger services to increase the simplicity and ease of texting on phones. Cobalt has a relative permeability two thirds that of iron. The commercial market in SMS's is growing. Cobalt-60, an artificially produced radioactive isotope of cobalt, is an important radioactive tracer and cancer-treatment agent. Many people keep in touch using SMS, and a whole culture of "texting" has developed from this. Mammals require small amounts of cobalt salts. With high levels of mobile telephone penetration, a mobile culture has evolved, where the phone becomes a key social tool, and people rely on their mobile phone addressbook to keep in touch with their friends. It is frequently associated with nickel, and both are characteristic ingredients of meteoric iron. In some developing countries, where there is little existing fixed-line infrastructure, the mobile phone has become widespread. The Curie temperature is of 1388 K with 1.6~1.7 Bohr magnetons per atom. It is not uncommon for young adults to simply own a mobile phone instead of a land-line for their residence. Cobalt is a hard ferromagnetic silver-white element. In many countries, mobile phones now outnumber land-line telephones, with most adults and many children now owning mobile phones. . In less than twenty years, mobile phones have gone from being rare and expensive pieces of equipment used by businesses to a pervasive low-cost personal item. Cobalt is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol Co and atomic number 27. In other countries, such as the United States, Japan, and South Korea, legislation does not require any particular standard, and GSM coexists with other standards, such as CDMA. London celebrates 50 years of Cobalt-60 Radiotherapy. All European nations and some Asian nations legislated it as their sole standard. WebElements.com – Cobalt. This is due to the equipment manufacturers working to meet one of a few standards, particularly the GSM standard which was designed for Europe-wide interoperability. National Pollutant Inventory - Cobalt fact sheet. The mobile phone has become ubiquitous because of the interoperability of mobile phones across different networks and countries. Cobalt is the name of a current line of cars from Chevrolet. The availability of Prepaid or pay as you go services, where the subscriber does not have to commit to a long term contract, has helped fuel this growth. Los Alamos National Laboratory - Cobalt. At present India and China have the largest growth rates of cellular subscribers in the world. It is used in industrial radiography to detect structural flaws in metal parts. In most of Europe, wealthier parts of Asia and Latin America, Australia, Canada and the United States, mobile phones are now widely used, with the majority of the adult, teenage, and even child population owning one. It is used in radiation treatment of foods for sterilization (cold pasteurization). Due to their low establishment costs and rapid deployment, mobile phone networks have since spread rapidly throughout the world, outstripping the growth of fixed telephony. It is used in radiotherapy. Radio phones have a long and varied history that stretches back to the 1950s, with hand-held cellular radio devices being available since 1983. Cobalt-60 has multiple uses as a gamma ray source:
Mobile phones are also distinct from cordless telephones, which generally operate only within a limited range of a specific base station. Battery electrodes. There are also specialist communication systems related to, but distinct from mobile phones, such as satellite phones and Professional Mobile Radio. Pigments (cobalt blue and cobalt green). Some of the world's largest mobile phone manufacturers include Alcatel, Audiovox, Fujitsu, Kyocera (formerly the handset division of Qualcomm), LG, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic (Matsushita Electric), Philips, Sagem, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Siemens, SK Teletech, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba. Ground coats for porcelain enamels. In addition to the standard voice function of a telephone, a mobile phone can support many additional services such as SMS for text messaging, packet switching for access to the Internet, and MMS for sending and receiving photos and video. Drying agents for paints, varnishes, and inks. The mobile phone communicates via a cellular network of base stations, or cell sites, which are in turn linked to the conventional telephone network. electroplating because of its appearance, hardness, and resistance to oxidation. Most current mobile phones connect instead to the network using a wireless radio wave transmission technology. Catalysts for the petroleum and chemical industries. A mobile phone or cell phone is an electronic telecommunications device with the same basic capability as a conventional fixed-line telephone, but which is also entirely portable and is not required to be connected with a wire to the telephone network. Alnico magnets. The GPS technology already available in some phones, while coupled with the camera phone, may also allow users in the future to not only take a picture, but snap the exact location and angle at which the picture was taken. Magnets and magnetic recording media.
This would likely lead to maps and help finding where you are going, and supports social efforts, such as locating friends or group members nearby, and identifying some strangers. Cemented carbides (also called hard metals) and diamond tools. In the future, GPS positioning may be coupled with accelerometer positioning, for covering underground or indoor positioning. High-speed steels. There are several cell phones that can perform GPS positioning. Corrosion- and wear-resistant alloys. But it is likely that the bandwidth to communicate the video, and receive a processed model will exist. Superalloys, for parts in gas turbine aircraft engines. It is unlikely that cell phones will have the processing power to construct models and textures. Alloys, such as:
The delivery of multimedia content including video to mobiles is beginning to become a reality with two main competing standards DMB - Digital Multimedia Broadcasting - and DVB-H - a handset version of the Digital Video Broadcasting standard. The technology is proving popular and there are now even vending machines that accept this form of payment. By charging up a phone with pre-paid cash credits, it can act as a sophisticated mobile-phone wallet. The system, pioneered by NTT DoCoMo and SonyEricsson, is called Felica and there are around 10,000 convenience stores where one can now use a phone to pay for goods just by 'swiping' it over a flat reader. New technology in Japan has combined the RFID chip principle into the handset and hooked it up to a network of readers and interfaces. Directly tapping into the inner ear or the auditory nerve is already technologically feasible and will become practical as surgical methods advance. In addition, the implant was only designed to receive signals, not transmit them. The implant is currently powered externally, given that no current power source is small enough to fit inside the tooth with it. Sound is transmitted via radio waves from another device (presumably a mobile phone) and received by the implant. This device consists of a radio receiver and transducer, which transmits the sound via bone conduction through the jawbone into the ear. Speculative improvements in the future may be inspired by an English team led by James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau who in 2002 developed an implant designed to be inserted into a tooth during dental surgery. However, different display technologies, such as OLED displays, e-paper or retinal displays, smarter communication hardware (directional antennae, multi-mode and peer-to-peer phones) may reduce power requirements, while new power technologies such as fuel cells may provide better energy capacity. Colour screens and additional functions put increasing demands on the device's power source, and battery developments may not proceed sufficiently fast to compensate. Further improvements in battery life will be required. The new standard (UMA) has been developed for this. The emergence of integration capabilities with other unlicensed access technologies such as a WiMAX and WLAN, as well as allowing handover between traditional operator networks supporting GSM, CDMA and UMTS to unlicensed mobile networks. Developments in podcast software enables mobile phones to become podcast playback devices through existing channels like MMS Podcast, J2ME Podcast and AMR-NB Podcast. Developments in miniaturised hard disks and flash drives to solve the storage space issue are already surfacing, therefore opening a window for phones to become portable music libraries and players similar to the iPod. Examples of companies that are currently developing this technology are Neomedia (via Paperclick), Mobot and Scanbuy. Searches can also be personalized to local areas using a GPS system built in to cell phones. This technology can be extended to RFID tags, or even snapped pictures of company logos. Phones equipped with barcode reader-enabled cameras will be able to snap photos of barcodes and direct the user to corresponding sites on the Internet. New technologies are being explored that will utilize the Extended Internet and enable mobile phones to treat a barcode as a URL tag. However, to support more natural speech recognition and translation, a drastic improvement in the state of technology in these devices is required. Many phones already have rudimentary speech recognition in a form of voice dialing. Mobile phones will include various speech technologies as they are being developed. Examples of companies that are currently developing this technology are Digital Airways with the Kaleido product, e-sim, mobile arsenal, and Qualcomm with UIOne for the BREW environment. New solutions are being developed to create new MMI more easily and let manufacturers and operators experiment new concepts. An important area of evolution relates to the Man Machine Interface. Currently it is only available in stand-alone devices, such as Ectaco translators. One function that would be useful in phones is a translation function. However, this may be solved using folding e-paper or built-in projectors. For example, ebooks may well become a distinct device, because of conflicting form-factor requirements — ebooks require large screens, while phones need to be smaller. One difficulty in adapting mobile phones to new uses is form factor. |